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Describe the detailed observations and critical insights given in the Bernier's "Travels in the Mughal Empire".

Answer» <html><body><p></p>Solution : Bernier's The Travels in the Mughal Empire' is marked by detailed observations, critical insights and reflection. <br/> (i)According to Bernier, there was no private property during Mughal India. He was a firm believer in the virtues of private property, and saw crown ownership of land as being harmful for both the state and its people. He thought that the emperor owned all'the land and distributed it among his nobles, and this had disastrous consequences for the economy and society <br/> (ii)Owing to crown ownership of land, landholders could not pass on their land to their children. So they were abverse to any long-term investment in the susbstanance and expansion of production. It had led to the uniform <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/ruination-1192032" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about RUINATION">RUINATION</a> of agriculture, excessive oppression of the <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/peasantry-1149633" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about PEASANTRY">PEASANTRY</a> and a continuous decline in the living standards of all sections of society except the ruling aristocracy. <br/> (iii) Bernier's descriptions influenced Western theorists from the eighteenth century onwards. The French philosopher Montesquieu, for instance, used this account to <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/develop-431630" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about DEVELOP">DEVELOP</a> the idea of oriental despotism, according to which rulers in Asia (the Orient or the East) enjoyed absolute authority over' their subjects, who were kept in conditions of subjugation and poverty, arguing that all land belonged to the king and that private property was non-existent. <br/> (iv) According to this view, <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/everybody-454349" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about EVERYBODY">EVERYBODY</a>, except the emperor and his nobles, barely,managed to survive. This idea was further developed as the concept of the Asiatic mode of production by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century. He argued that in India(and other Asian countries), before colonialism, Surplus was approptiated by the state. This led to the emergence of a society that was composed of a large number of autonomous and (internally) egalitarian village communities. <br/> (v) The imperial court presided over these village communities, respecting their autonomy as long as the flow of surplus was unimpeded. This was regarded as a stagrant system. <br/> (vi) Contemporary European travellers and writers often highlighted the treatment of women as a crucial marker of difference between Western and Eastern societies. Not surprisingly, Bernier chose the practice of Sati for detailed <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/desctiption-2055001" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about DESCTIPTION">DESCTIPTION</a>. He noted that while women scemed to embrace death cheerfully, others were forced to die.</body></html>


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